Ex-firearms instructor sentenced for fatal shooting during state police training

By Margaret GibbonsStaff writer

Friday

Aug 28, 2015 at 12:01 AMAug 28, 2015 at 6:00 PM

A former Pennsylvania State Police firearms instructor will spend two weeks behind bars for a shooting that took the life of a fellow trooper.

Richard L. Schroeter, 43, of the 1600 block of Yeager Road, Upper Providence, was sentenced Friday in Montgomery County Court to three to 18 months in prison and to an additional four years of probation that will begin after he completes his parole time for the shooting death of Trooper David Kedra and for recklessly endangering the lives of four other troopers.

Montgomery County Judge Garrett D. Page, who handed down the sentence, told Schroeter that he will have to spend the first two weeks of his sentence behind bars and the remaining part of the first three months under house arrest. Schroeter will begin serving his time on Sept. 11.

“Two weeks? My brother’s life is just worth two weeks?” Christine Kedra, the victim’s sister, shouted at county Deputy District Attorney Samantha L. R. Cauffman outside the courtroom following an emotional two-hour sentencing hearing.

“I think my brother’s life is worth more than just two weeks in jail,” Christine Kedra said later.

“There are no winners here,” Cauffman later told reporters. “The defendant was held accountable for his criminal recklessness but no amount of accountability is going to satisfy the family and no accountability is going to fill the hole in their hearts. I just hope someday that they can move past their grief.”

Schroeter, a 20-year state police trooper who retired shortly after the incident, pleaded guilty in May to five counts of recklessly endangering others.

The charges stem from a shooting that occurred during a firearms training session on Sept. 30, 2014, at the Montgomery County Public Safety campus in Plymouth.

Before he was sentenced, Schroeter apologized to the Kedra family, telling them that he hoped that one day they could forgive him although he will never be able to forgive himself.

“I have always held myself to high standards but, in this case, I failed,” said Schroeter. “I am sorry I took him away from you. I took away something that I can never give back.”

The shooting occurred as Kedra, a 26-year-old Chester County resident who joined the state police in June 2012, was participating in a classroom training session at a time when state police were transitioning from the Glock firearms they had been carrying to a new Sig Sauer firearm. Schroeter, a corporal and licensed firearms instructor since 2003, was teaching the session.

Four other troopers were seated with Kedra around a circular table in a classroom at the Public Safety Campus while Schroeter discussed the difference between the two weapons, using his own state-issued Sig Sauer handgun to demonstrate, according to a county grand jury report used to form the basis for bringing the criminal charges.

Schroeter, responding to a question from one of the troopers concerning trigger pull on the Sig Sauer, allegedly squeezed the trigger and the gun discharged, with the bullet striking Kedra in the stomach, the grand jury report said. Kedra died later that day.

“They both were in a profession that is terribly unforgiving of mistakes and in this case, unfortunately, a young man lost his life,” said defense attorney Timothy Woodward. “This was unintentional and there was no malice.”

Woodward, who argued for a probation sentence for his client, said he was “disappointed” that his client received any jail time. He said there was “far too much anger, hate” expressed in the courtroom by Kedra family members, adding, “I can’t imagine that not having an effect on the judge.”

“My wedding felt more like a funeral because my brother was supposed to be there as my best man,” Kevin Kedra testified.

“My whole world came crashing down the day he was killed,” testified Kedra’s fiancée, Suzanne Carriere. “Not a day goes by that I don’t yearn for him but, instead, each day I wake up to an empty space next to me.”

Various Kedra family members have railed against the district attorney’s office and, more specifically, District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, for not bringing more serious homicide charges against Schroeter. They have said that charging Schroeter with the same recklessly endangering charge for Kedra’s death that they charged him with for endangering four other members in the firearms training class was comparable to telling them that his “life did not matter.”

Ferman has responded that she was following the recommendations by the grand jury that investigated the case. The grand jury contended that there was not sufficient evidence to prove that Schroeter’s actions showed a conscious disregard for human life, which is necessary to substantiate a charge of involuntary manslaughter, according to the grand jury’s findings.

Woodward had presented more than a half dozen character witnesses who testified on behalf of Schroeter, including Michael D. Marino, the former Montgomery County district attorney, and members of the Trappe Fire Co. where Schroeter still volunteers.

Another defense witness was Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Chief Brenda Bernot, a former state police captain who also served as a firearms instructor.

“The more you handle firearms, the more opportunities there are for something to go wrong,” Bernot said. “As long as a person handling firearms is human, there are going to be mistakes.”

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